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Packers Stock Report: Reader's Choice Edition

When the dust finally settled following Green Bay’s 23-10 loss at Minnesota on Sunday, the outcome of the game seemed inconsequential in the wake of the news that Aaron Rodgers could possibly be lost for the season due to a broken collarbone. As the injuries along the offensive line and in the secondary continued to mount, the Packers just couldn’t summon the will to pull out a win without their fearless leader at the helm.

There’s no two ways about it—Sunday’s game was ugly. And while some might use the loss of a future hall-of-fame quarterback as an excuse for underperforming, Mike McCarthy is not interested in doing so. At his Monday press conference, McCarthy was animated in expressing his displeasure with how his team played, saying, “Everybody needs to clean their house up right now. I don’t like the way it looks.”

I agree. It would be impossible for me to choose just three or four players whose stock went down on Sunday, because, quite frankly, there was A LOT to dislike. For that reason, I’m going to focus on the few positives that came out of the game and invite the readers, if you feel compelled to call out the negatives specifically, to comment on what you feel is the most pertinent “stock falling” item this week.

Rising

Blake Martinez: The second-year jump keeps getting bigger and bigger for Martinez, who recorded double-digit tackles for the third time this season. He continues to be a force around the line of scrimmage, with two of those tackles resulting in losses, and nearly snagged an interception on Sunday as well. Martinez has been the model of consistency on defense through six games for Green Bay.

Kenny Clark: Another ascending sophomore on the Packers’ defense, Clark has grown in a full-blown force on the interior. His get-off and ability to shed blocks puts him in great position more often than not, and he was impressive again on Sunday, making six tackles and forcing a fumble that led to a Green Bay touchdown

Brett Hundley: I know, I know—how can his stock be rising following a three-interception performance? Hundley gets the nod here because of his demeanor and willingness to step to the plate in the face of widespread panic. He made no excuses when it came to the situation he was thrown into, and the Packers should feel a lot better now than they did when Rodgers went down in 2013.

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Comments (30)
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Hundley made some nice back shoulder throws. But if he throws picks it's all over. He showed poise by finding Ty for the TD and holding off running. So there is some hope that with a week a practice together, the team will work together.

MM is right again. (Clean House) The packers were Flat. The Head should have been full of players; with a turd up their butts. The trenches were just plain bad. Frackwell was bad. Lowrey, just where are you? The Vikings had the game plan. Just hope they start playing like the pre season favorites we thought.

TT settled for mediocrity every else because he thought AR would always get him to the playoffs. The least he should have done after that was give his QB a great OL too.

OTOH, nothing would have protected AR on that type of rollout but maybe he wouldn't have had to if he was able to sit in the pocket when Lang and Sitton were there. But choices have to be made and we've been screaming for a better D for years (which we don't seem to have gotten).

I get your point, and good post by the way.
You could argue that he drafts good talent, but injured talent, could you not?
Would you rather have an above average player that was always available, or a very good to excellent player that was predominantly injured?
Conundrum.

I think the argument could also be made that he drafts reasonable talent but the position coaches just aren't all that good, and that they've been able to hang around because #12 covers the inadequacies on the field that might otherwise get them canned.

How about I change it to "injury prone".
If they weren't injury prone in college, they sure are now.
Maybe they should switch to looking for ANY red flag that would predispose injury - ANY injury, and go from there.
That should be pretty simple to do.
"Coach, did X player have any injuries at all in practice or games that weren't disclosed in player profiles?" "Oh, he had hamstring injuries 3X in four years, OK, I'm no longer interested". Sorry.
Not that anything I say will change what they do.

I think they way to answer this is that many of these players have shown SOME greatness but not enough to make the team 'good' without AR. It doesn't help much if Bahk and Bulaga play great if defenders just come down the middle and if we can't get a push to pick up 4th and 1.

Every part of the team except qb has been pretty inconsistent. WR's have the best shot at claiming to be great on their own but how many times have we seen them not get separation and AR has to throw a perfect pass to get the completion. AR has been consistently good-great.

Hayward has blossomed in SD, yes, but I don't know if he's being used differently there as opposed to GB. Do they play more zone coverage? I don't know. Still, he was steady but not great in GB after his first season.

As for Rollins: he was a gamble. A guy showing ball-hawking skills in limited snaps in college. If he panned out, the Packers look really good. He's not been that player in the pros, but where he was picked was about where the draftniks were expecting him to go. As it stands, the Packers have a lot of DBs who probably belong at S.

Agreed. Plus I find it hard to blame TT for Hayward. The coaching staff tried Hayward at boundary CB but moved Randall ahead of Hayward. Then they moved him to slot but always played Hyde more. The coaching staff made it clear that Hayward would only be a part-timer in GB, despite PFF's glowing grades. I really don't think TT calls MM and Dom and tells them they must give snaps to player X. So, take the comp pick. I think almost all the blame for Hayward has to be on the coaching staff. TT's only call was whether to retain MM, who clearly is responsible for Dom being DC.

Given how Packer players were falling left and right throughout the game I'm not sure that it is reasonable to try to identify players who played poorly in this game.

The OL became overmatched with 3 starters going out of the game. The secondary went into the game without it's two best players and lost 2 more as the game went on.

Most importantly when Rodgers went down his loss affects everything. If our Packer stock was actually worth anything (as opposed to being glorified thank you cards for our contributions to the team) it would have probably lost more than 50% of its value with Rodger's injury. So IMO, the stock of the entire team has fallen.

Just look at the line for this week's game, the Packers are 5.5 point underdogs at Lambeau. That will probably change as the money pours in on the Aints.

We'll find out if Hundley and the return of our injured players can move it back up. Thanks, Since '61

I like Hundley and he seems to have smarts and all of the physical traits needed however; he doesn't seem to have any pocket feel or awareness (this goes back to pre-season as well) I don't believe this can be coached.
The kid is gonna get pounded back there, say your prayers for him.

Quote

"I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious."